Review: Fall Out Boy's Take This to Your Grave

Fall Out Boy’s first proper album, Take This To Your Grave, was released in 2003, and is a very, very straightforward pop punk recording. Lyrically and musically, the comparison to New Found Glory, Simple Plan, and all the other early 2000’s groups of that nature are all too easily made. It’s a 40-minute series of 4/4 power chord songs and pretty basic melodies.

My real problem with this album is that it all sounds pretty much the same. The only way I’m really able to tell the different songs apart is that here or there, there’s one little melodic accent or hook going on that triggers my ‘Oh, this one isn’t that other one that I don’t like, so I shouldn’t skip it’ reaction. Track to track, there is so little variation in style that it all bleeds together. I will use a metaphor.

Listening to the twelve tracks on this album is like eating twelve grilled cheese sandwiches in a row. The first sandwich, being grilled cheese, is delicious, and you immediately want more. And the second sandwich is just as pleasing as the first. “This is going to be a great meal!” You think, “Twelve delicious grilled cheese sandwiches in a row!” But after the fourth or fifth, your hands are far too greasy, and the remaining sandwiches are starting to get cold. You’ve thrown up somewhere around the tenth and stagger back fifteen minutes later to reluctantly finish the final two, lumpy, hardened and cold sandwiches and the butter on the bread is starting to get runny and it’s really no longer the amazing sandwich buffet that you signed up for.

What I’m saying is that wherever you start listening to this – be it the beginning, middle, or just putting your player on shuffle and diving right in – the first song you hear you’ll enjoy, and will probably become your favorite of the bunch. The rest of the songs are just as good, but after you get through a couple more, it’s all leftover grilled cheese from there on out.

I’m aware that the band went on to preposterous success and fame, and that this record was their launching point. But the truth is, the difference between this album and their last, Folie A Deux is night and day. And I’m grateful that the group was able to grow so much in the five years between those two albums, because Take This to Your Grave just isn’t doing it for me.

Bet it’s great moshing music, though.